THE GIRL FROM MORE NA, THE QUEEN OF EROTICA
By 2 pm on a summer afternoon, Pari Tomar has finished shooting for eight short comedy films – two to five minutes each – in a one BHK apartment in West Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar area. She settles down on a white couch during a 10-minute break from the shoot. “I am flawless in front of the camera. Ask anyone in the industry,” she says with a grin, ruffling her coloured hair.
The last time Tomar, 26, worked in an erotic film was in November 2016. Since then, she has regularly featured in short comedy clips and modelled for true crime Hindi magazines.
She is willing to talk about her stint in soft porn films that made her a ‘star’. But she does not want us to judge her. “I will still work in hot films if I am offered one. I don’t understand the fuss about them. It is a job just like any other,” she says.
After completing college in Morena, her hometown in Madhya Pradesh, Tomar kept changing her mind about what she wanted to do. Then , on the spur of the moment, she decided to leave Morena and live with her aunt in outer Delhi’s Mongolpuri. In January 2012, she boarded the Bhopal Express to Delhi, hoping for a new life.
Within a month, she enrolled for a sixmonth diploma at an acting school in south Delhi and soon after, started acting in Bhojpuri devotional albums and item songs aired on regional cable channels and the Internet. “I became a sensation in Bihar. I don’t do that work anymore but DJs over there still play my songs on Chhath pooja,” she says.
Tomar was doing fine but wanted more from life. Work was coming her way but there was always a gap of a week or two between assignments. “I wanted to work non-stop,” she says.
In the summer of 2014, a phone call did exactly that for her. “There is this film for which the artist needs to expose a little. Since you have done item songs, I thought I should ask you,” a director with whom Tomar had previously worked, asked her.
“Mujhe scene karne mein koi aapatti nahi hai (I have no issues with such scenes),” she told the director.
Between 2014 and 2016, Tomar featured in more than 1,000 B-grade films. Roughly 10 to 15 films were shot in a day, and Tomar charged ~15,000 per day. She used the earnings for her daily expenses and to pay rent for her room in Noida. She was still left with enough money to send back home.
Tomar insists that her work did not have an adverse impact on her relationship with her family. If anything, it made her ‘popular’ back home. “The last time I visited home, I was invited as a chief guest to inaugurate a school,” she says.
Early this year, Tomar started her own production house, making short comedy films. “I have struggled a lot. Now I am at a stage where I can help people,” she says.